A few weeks ago, I’d posted a comment on my Facebook page about clearing clutter from your space in order to make room for new things to come into it.
This can be physical space, digital space, mental space or emotional space.
Physical space
Not only does cleaning out physical space give you more room for physical items or just more room period, it also is a major stress reliever and gives a sense of calm to you emotionally.
Start by just cleaning your desk, a junk drawer, or a closet. Once you get started, you’ll notice that you want to keep going. It’s very therapeutic!
Digital space
This is the perfect time of the year to start clearing out your digital life. You’re computer is probably stuffed full of unused documents and programs and it is bogging down your system.
Having too much ‘stuff’ on your computer also makes it harder to find important files you may be looking for.
If you don’t have one already, get an external hard drive and back stuff up that you absolutely must have or start deleting all those extra files. (I know that I have several duplicate files that I’m working through organizing.)
Now would also be a great time to go through and clean out your email inbox. Do you really have time to read all those newsletters? Make a list of the top ones that you most enjoy reading or that benefit your business and unsubscribe to the rest. (I hope mine makes your “keep” list!)
Mental space
One of my favorite things to do, to create mental space, is to do a “brain dump”. Grab a pen & a pad of paper (Yes, I said a pen & paper, stay away from the digital devices. Trust me on this!) and take about an hour or two and just start writing down everything that you are thinking about.
All your lists of things you’ve been meaning to do, from taking out the garbage to planning your next project, all those business ideas you’ve got swimming around in there.
Keep going until you can’t think of another thing to write. (I’ll warn you, for some, this may take several hours.) But in the end, you’ll be shocked and amazed of how good it feels to finally free up that space in your mind. Now you don’t have to worry about all this stuff because you now have it down on paper!
If you’d like, you can now categorize the items into personal or business.
I typically do this at least once every 3 months.
Emotional space
This one is a bit tougher, however you need to protect your emotional well being. Break free of any energy leeches, naysayers or people who aren’t supporting you.
Schedule time to re energize yourself from work and even family. To be your best for your family and for your clients, you need to be at your best for yourself.
Go ahead and take an hour each day and do something that you enjoy doing. Go for a walk, read a book or work on your hobby.
As soon as you start opening up these spaces you’ll find that you’ll have more space to receive the things that you’ve been asking for. Be it friendship, clients or even money.
So I challenge you to take some time during the next couple of weeks and “open up” some space in your life so you’ll have room for the good things to move into it! That’s what I plan on doing. 🙂
Be sure to come back and leave a comment below letting me know how it went and what your results were!
Take care and God Bless you and your family!
Image Credit: John Kasawa / FreeDigitalPhotos.net
Wife, mom to 3 boys, dark chocolate lover, entrepreneur, marketing strategist/web developer and author of Online Marketing Simplified:
The Beginner’s Guide to Using the Internet to Market Your Local Business 
De-cluttering is one of my favorite things to work on with my coaching clients. We accumulate clutter in so many areas, it’s not all physical, there’s mental and spiritual stuff. I remind myself and others that clutter isn’t necessarily “trash” but it is that which no longer serves a purpose in life personally right now.
Kim, I loved your comment: “clutter isn’t necessarily “trash” but it is that which no longer serves a purpose in life personally right now.”
That is so true! What worked well in our life/space at one point in our lives may no longer hold true and by releasing that, it opens up space for what is needed during our growth at this time.
Another point I’d like to add is that I advocate paying if forward – so if I’m clearing out clutter from my physical space, rather than try to sell stuff on ebay or Craigslist, I end up donating it to the second-hand shed at our town recycle center.
It may well be of need or use to someone else. 🙂
Clutter?? Yes… that’s what I was thinking today that I need to do! How did YOU know??? 🙂 When it’s cluttered all around me it does clutter my mind too. I need to do this to help me focus! Thanks for the article. Loved it. x0x
The LEARNED Preneur @ NormaDoiron.NET
Just “Reading Your Mind” like my mentor taught me. 😉
totally agree with you! clutter in the mind is one of the worst – and probably needs the most clearing!! loved the article. Great job! P
I love this article Jenn! I feel that when there is clutter around me, it also clutters my mind. Funny that it works that way! Getting rid of clutter certainly frees the mind. Thank Jenn! Wishing you a fabulous, clutter-free 2012!
Excellent advice. I need to remove some of the clutter in all of those areas of my life!
I love to de-clutter. I always feel better and less stressed when I’m done. I’m an organizing nut so I frequently do this. In fact, we had the carpets cleaned at our house last week, so I took advantage and went through the stuff in our bedroom and cleared out a lot! Thanks for sharing!
Mandy, Same here. It’s hard to get started sometimes, but once you do, it’s hard to stop!
Thanks for sharing this article, Jen. I also love to de-clutter. I feel fresh and stress-free when I do that. Definitely, this is a great article. 🙂
Oh my! You have no idea how much I needed this reminder about clearing out my digital space. My computer is so FULL – an abundance of emails, too many things on my desktop, and unfiled things in “My Documents.” I’m scheduling time to declutter my digital space, as well as creating better systems for dealing with all the stuff. THANKS!
I still need to do more digital decluttering. However, I did get through all my client folders. Moved stuff to an external harddrive so I’d have more room on my laptop. Wasn’t sure I wanted to get rid of older stuff and some folders were just too big to put on a CD. 🙂
Systems definitely help!
Hi Jen, I love it…especially about writing and clearing the mental space…Thank you! 🙂 When we clear space, better things get sent to us ~ it is the law of nature!
This is such a great article. It’s amazing what happens when you let something as simple as email clutter pile up. Then multiply it with every other clutter in your life-yikes! This post was filled with so many great tips. Thanks so much, Jenn!
Thanks for this article. I am working on cleaning out my digital space tomorrow. That is one area that really needs organization!
Thanks Jenn, for a wonderful article. I agree, cleaning out all of these spaces is essential to life and business. I am always amazed at how good it feels to clean out a physical space. Surprisingly, it is addictive ~ once I get started I don’t want to stop (and I hate cleaning, so getting started is always the challenge!)
Oh, I totally agree! The first step is always the hardest. 😉
Excellent article and love all the tips! I especially love the ‘brain dump’ tip which I do each and every week. I love starting my week with a uncluttered mind which can be difficult to accomplish but it is possible:) Thanks for sharing your knowledge!
Really? Every week? That’s refreshing! I would love to get to that point. I’ve had nights where my brain wouldn’t shut down and let me sleep, so I’d end up getting up and doing a brain dump for an hour so it was cleared enough to settle down and rest! 🙂
I totally agree about decluttering. Having space for new things is the best way to move forward!
Marilyam Hashim